WHAT IT'S ABOUT Hey, it works for Anne Heche ("Men in Trees"). Or at least for her character in this plucky half-hour about "an angry, drunken -- in a good marriage gone bad." That's for the pilot's initial minute, anyway. Then, she "dies." And wakes up to the first day of the rest of her life.

"I'm suddenly wide-awake in my life for the first time in years," she enthuses, jumping up and down like a toddler. It seems contagious. "I forgot how weird you are," she tells her suddenly nutty hubby. "So did I," says shocked he.

MY SAY Nobody's the bad guy in this deft portrait -- not even the easy-to-demonize mistress (Alexandra Breckinridge, "American Horror Story") -- which makes "Save Me" something of its own miracle. That genial verve takes a while to triumph, though, amid such pilot crutches as sprightly narration, "magical" music and cleverspeak dialogue.

BOTTOM LINE The "Save Me" pilot saves itself artistically. But debuting in a summertime double dose makes series salvation improbable.